Tab. 7169. 



EPIDENDRUM Scepteum. 



Native of Venezuela and New Grenada. 



Nat. Ord. Orchide^e. — Tribe EriDENDKE^;. 

 Genua Epidendritm, Linn.; (Bentli. & Hooh.f. Gen. PI. vol. iii. p. 528.) 



Epidendrxjm (Aulizeum) Sceptrum ; pseudobulbis stipitatis elongatis apices 

 versus paucifoliatis, foliis erecto-recurvis loriformibus apicibus rotun- 

 datis emarginatis v. breviter 2-lobis, racemo basi spathaceo elato stricto 

 nmltifloro, bracteis minutis ovatis, pedicellis cum ovariis 1-1 £ pollicaribus 

 strictis, floribus 1-1 i poll. diam. aureis rubro-purpureo maculatis, 

 sepalis lanceolatis acutis, petalis latioribus spathulato-oblanceolatia 

 acutis, labello columnar adnato trapezoideo angulis obtusis glaberrimo 

 basi pulvinato, columna brevi viridi, clinandrio trilobo. 



E, Sceptrum, Lindl. Orchid. Linden. No. 50; Fol. Orchid. Epidendrum, p. 36, 

 No. Ill ; Reichb.f. in Bonpland, vol. ii. p. 281 ; in Walp. Hep vol vi' 

 p. 353. 



A very striking species, and -with a rather wide dis- 

 tribution for an epiphytic Orchid; extending along the 

 coast ranges of the Caribbean Sea, from Cumana, where 

 it was found by Linden at an elevation of 6500 feet, to 

 Santa Martha, in New Grenada, and to Ocaiia in the interior 

 of the same republic. It belongs to a section of the genus 

 in which the lip is more or less adnate to the whole length 

 of the column (less in this species), and with few leaves at 

 the top of the pseudobulb, and terminal inflorescence. Of 

 species figured in this work it comes nearest to E. vrm'e- 

 gatum (Plates 3151) of which E. coriaceum (Plate 3595) is 

 undoubtedly a variety, and not a very marked one. 



E. Sceptrum was first flowered in this country by the 

 late Mr. "Warner, who sent a flowering raceme to Kew in 

 1864. Sir Trevor Lawrence again flowered it in 1888, and 

 presented the plant to Kew, from which the accompany- 

 ing figure was made in September, 1889. 



Desce. llootstoch creeping, rigid. Pseudobulbs stipitate, 

 a span to a foot long, very narrowly fusiform, nearly an 

 inch in diameter, slightly compressed, clothed at the base 

 with a lanceolate brown sheath ; stipes one to two inches 



April 1st, 1891. 



